Had to go a bit off routine this leg day as I couldn’t get a rack for a while, instead of standing waiting I thought I would just warm up with goblet squats until one was free, ended up hitting around 8 sets of 12 with the last couple of sets being with a 50kg dumbell, not at all taxing on my legs but really killed my core and lower back. Once I finally got in the rack my squats felt terrible! All the supporting muscles in my core where fried.
Don’t be discouraged bro it’s part of the process. If you’re cutting your muscles are never as fully pumped with glycogen as normal, so it’s kind of like a half inflated balloon. Your mass IS still there, unless you’re starving yourself at like 800cal a day trust me you didn’t lose any actual LBM, it might just feel like it.
If you want to really get lean you just have to keep faith in the process and keep going no matter what. Don’t get in your head about it. Train hard, meet your numbers every day. I went through the same feelings last year on my first prep, my competitive clients go through the same now. “I look so much smaller than I used to!” My coach would constantly remind me that without more glycogen inflating the muscles, you’ll look flat. Losing actual muscle tissue is way overrated and misunderstood, feeling tired and weak sometimes is just part of the process. Keep the faith brother you can do this! Eye on the prize man. You’re looking good. Don’t stop now.
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Thanks for the encouragement! I know it’s all in my mind, that’s why its bothering me that it’s bothering me if that makes sense, I knew this feeling was coming months ago before I started and told myself to not let it distract me. I will keep going
all the best for the weekend buddy hope you get the rewards for your hard work. In a way you already have them no matter the outcome on the day. What you have achieved is incredible. Good luck.
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does your old man lift? People who don’t aren’t able to distinguish between size and muscle. All they see is your clothes aren’t as tight, so they assume you’ve lost muscle.
Like Rob said, low glycogen can make an absolutely HUGE difference to how your muscles look. It’s VERY unlikely you’ve lost any muscle. Eat a 16 inch pizza, drink a bottle of coke and eat a big bag of crisps, then train the shit out of your chest, shoulders and arms. Afterwards, put on a t-shirt that’s a little too small and ask your old man how much muscle he thinks you’ve lost.
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one thing that happened to me once when I was cutting, was I went straight from a PSMF into a steroid cycle using a lot of “wet” compounds.
I dunno if you’ve ever done a PSMF but it’s essentially like a 2 week diet where you eat nothing but protein and salad leaves. No fat, no carbs. Naturally you look like shit and flat as a pancake. I went straight from that into a cycle using test, dbol and mk677 which are all compounds that make you hold a TON of water, so my weight jumped up like 15lbs in 2 days (and to make it a little more hilarious, for some reason the drugs make you hold a lot of water in your face). People were like “what the fuck happened to you???”
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Yeah your right he doesn’t lift, he seems to notice when I’ve gained or lost but obviously in clothes it’s impossible to tell what that may be.
I’ve introduced a few more carbs this week because my recovery doesn’t seem there, most probably the change of routine. Even though I have upped then slightly it’s nowhere close to the 500ish I was having on bulk, 200g tops. Will drop them back down again as of now.
Down another couple of pounds, 160ish this morning. Not noticeably leaner but hoping that I start noticing after a couple more pounds.
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Looking very solid man. Size doesn’t seem to be going anywhere!
Me too, so lets not!!!
Waist looks thinner though.
Thanks guys.
I’m really surprised that I’m around 16lb down and close to 3in down on waist, in my jeans I look like a weight watchers advert, but yet I still don’t have that thin skin look on my abs. I think it’s gonna be the last fat to shift.
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Starting to get a little vascular, not much but this is stone could with no pump and after a few low carb days. Can’t really see in this pic but heads of the shoulder are showing more separation.
Little things keeping me motivated.
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Last time I did tonight’s upper body session it was a bad one, had to do it in the morning, hadn’t had much food and was still half asleep. Due to that I missed my rep targets on all but the first exercise!
So today I’m making sure I smash this session, screw the diet for today. I’m eating everything in sight and in a moment will eat my second pizza of the day and I’m not even ashamed. This session is gonna be my bitch!
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Fuck yea aha!
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Looking lean man! Keep it up You have a nice structure and definitely some solid mass. Hope the gains keep coming my friend
Thanks, I’m really not suffering at all yet and doing pretty much zero conditioning work, I feel like I have lots of cards up my sleeve to keep getting leaner.
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Waist is getting tighter, will make an extra effort to do some morning walking. Gonna walk to work in the morning which is around 30 minute mainly up hill.
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Bit of a bump in the road this week. After years of struggling with a recurring skin reaction I finally got an appointment to have patch testing. Been told to do zero exercise as sweating and raised temp can ruin the readings, as I’ve waited so long for this I think I may have to follow there advice.
Any tips for surviving a full week off mid prep?
Wife got a pic of my back.
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That sucks, but I’m sure a week off is going to make very little difference. Maybe this is the week you focus on dialing in the nutrition and doing some very LISS cardio.
How cold is it outside where you are?
I can work pretty damn hard outside in cool weather without breaking a sweat, so you could possibly just try to stay cool while putting some work in?
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That sounds a plan, although its actually pretty glorious in the UK at the minute. Will get in a few walks, and could probably pop into the gym and do a slow paced session with low reps or possibly a arms session. Had a really good session yesterday so that makes it better.
I was thinking of keeping my carbs and fats pretty low all week and bumping up protein a little.
It’s not playing football tonight that’s annoying me most!
I mentioned my leg development, or poor leg development over in the official thread. As I’ve never posted a leg picture I thought I should.
I don’t think they are massively out of proportion but visually they are pretty poor. For the sports I participated in they performed well and never bothered me what the looked like. I’m calling bad growth genetics. Anyway will show them for reference.
They grow in depth but I cannot get the sweep and width to grow to my liking.
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